Manuscripts and archives are unpublished, handwritten or typed, primary sources resulting from the activities carried out over a period of time by individuals, families, businesses and organisations.

They are one-of-a-kind resources and their importance stems from their intrinsic historical or artistic value, from their association with famous individuals and from their usefulness as educational and research materials.

You may need to use manuscripts or archives during your research, this section can help you to:

• understand the difference betweeen archives and manuscripts
• understand the different types of documents
• obtain relevant information about handwriting, palaeography and language
• locate and access relevant archive and manuscript repositories
• understand the conventional arrangement and descriptions of collections
• utilise the tools available to navigate collections
• make effective inquiries to an archivist
• appropriately request and handle documents
• understand the relevant reproduction and copyright restrictions
• correctly cite the manuscript in your research